Make Someone Smile

My wife and I received a forwarded email today that made us smile.

Here is the backstory on the email. Our grandsons attend a Montessori school, and the teacher of our almost five-year-old grandson sent his parents an email outlining in great detail how actively he had been engaged in a project at school that day. Without going into all the details, it was quite a complex project that he and a friend were working on, one that required quite a bit of focus and concentration. The teacher was so pleased with what she had observed that she took the time to describe what happened in an email, and sent it to our son and daughter-in-law. They then shared the teacher's correspondence with us, which is what caused our faces to shine with delight earlier today.

And there were more happy faces to come. As excited grandparents we, of course, shared the story of our grandson's activities with a few others throughout the day. And they smiled, too.

I am not proud of the fact that I am sometimes far too quick to spread news that is negative. I know how easy it is to do. So I needed the reminder that arrived in a forwarded email this morning, that it is just as easy to spread positivity as it is negativity. It only took our grandson's teacher a few minutes to write the original email, and our daughter-in-law, less time than that, to pass it on.

How might you share positivity with others today?

Be the reason someone smiles today.

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About The Author:

The Rev. Dr. D. Scott Stoner, LMFT, has been a family therapist for thirty-five years, first in the Chicago area and then in Milwaukee. His focus is working with individuals, couples, men, and families. He is the co-director, with his wife Holly Hughes Stoner, of the Samaritan Family Wellness Foundation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The foundation’s focus is creating preventative wellness materials for adults, families, and teens. He is also the creator of the national Living Compass Wellness Initiative. Scott lives in Shorewood, Wisconsin, with Holly, and also has three grown children and two grandsons.